In the past gaming machines included a number of mechanical reels which were spring loaded and released to spin by the pulling of a handle. The reels randomly stopped to display their symbols and define one or more outcomes.
Today, some gaming machines are electromechanical in nature and have mechanical reels driven by stepper motors to rotate and stop in a controlled manner to display outcomes derived from symbol combinations displayed on reel strips that are located on the periphery of the mechanical reels. Because of the stepper motors, these types of games are often referred to stepper games. A drawback to current stepper games is that the symbols on the reel strips are fixed. That is, the symbols are printed on the reel strips and hence they can only be changed by changing the printed reel strips.
Other current gaming machines employ video displays in order to display virtual reels to a player of a game. However, such gaming machines do not have the aesthetics and player appeal of electromechanical gaming machines with the physical, spinning reels.